Long waits for help with mental health issues in Gloucestershire have been thrown into the spotlight this week.

Anorexia sufferer Simon Rickards revealed that he has waited nine months for help for Gloucestershire's mental health services - and he is now at his lowest ever weight.

And questions were asked at Shire Hall this week about the number of vacancies for psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses and child psychologists in the county - and the impact this is having on people who need help.

Simon Rickards.

The provider of mental health services in Gloucestershire, at the time of writing, has 20 vacancies for mental health professionals from nurses to registrars.

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2gether NHS Foundation Trust says there are no consultant psychiatrist posts in Gloucestershire without cover in place, and staffing numbers have remained "stable" for psychiatrists."

They also insist the lack of staff is not an issue with money. Gloucestershire's mental health commissioning budget has actually gone up by £4.5million from 2015/16 to 2017/18.

So how come there's a lack of mental health professionals in Gloucestershire?

The 2gether Trust has admitted it has a recruitment issue, but it said all NHS trusts struggle to attract enough staff.

But councillor Iain Dobie (LD, Leckhampton and Warden Hill), who is a member of Gloucestershire County Council's Health and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee, said more needs to be done to attract mental health professionals to the area.

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He said: "Gloucestershire is a great place to live. In some cases we are getting it right - we're managing to recruit GPs.

"We need to work even harder to have our full compliment of fully qualified mental health professionals.

"We should be looking at golden hello's, and packages to help people move into our county."